


The Bouncy Bean

by crystalkei



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 04:52:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3923617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalkei/pseuds/crystalkei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bellamy works at a trampoline place and a cute blonde is making a ruckus in the foam pit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bouncy Bean

It’s called the Bouncy Bean and it smells like cinnamon. They have these industrial sized air fresheners in every vent because before they got those, the place had a tendency to smell like feet. Probably because of the hundreds of bare feet that walked through the place daily. The creaking sound of springs and people laughing, shouting kids, and the occasional “ow” were calming to Bellamy by now. He’d started at the trampoline place when he was in high school, he’d gotten enough scholarships (and max Pell Grant) to cover tuition for the university he got into, but asking his mom to cough up cash for books when there was barely enough to cover rent wasn’t something he’d dare do.   
  
So he started in high school as a cashier and by the time he’d finished his bachelor’s he was the general manager of the place. Six months before he completed his master’s his mom died in a car accident and Octavia had not done as well in school as he had. So he put off his PHD and took an adjunct position at the local community college while also keeping the Bouncy Bean running and pushing Octavia to apply any place but the beauty school down the street.

“You can’t be high at work, Jasper, go home, “ Bellamy said walking passed the kid shamelessly smoking a joint at the backdoor. God, he hoped no soccer mom saw that. “Wait, didn’t I fire you last week?”

“I didn’t think you were serious,” Jasper giggled. “That and you tried to call me in when Harper had cramps last night.” 

“And you didn’t pick up and you didn’t come in to help me out so I think you’re still fired.” Bellamy shrugged and pulled the joint out of the kid’s mouth, using his fingers to quickly put it out and then tossing it in the dumpster.

“So next time you call I should pick up?” Jasper asked like he really wasn’t sure what the right answer was. 

“Yeah,” Bellamy answered with a roll of his eyes.

It was pretty light in the early afternoon before school got out and it was mostly just a few college kids that would come in and pretend they were Olympians. Of course that was always when someone got hurt and as he hit the floor he saw Lincoln flirting with his sister.

“Did someone get hurt or is this a social call? Because I hope you paid the hourly rate if it’s a social call,” he said. The older guy tucked some of her hair behind her ear not even bothered by Bellamy. 

“An old lady sprained her ankle but Lincoln took care of her,” Octavia said with dreamy eyes, not taking her eyes off her boyfriend. Bellamy tried not to gag.   
  
“Okay well shouldn’t you be working, Octavia?” Her shoulders slumped and she pouted.

“You’re such a buzz kill,” she said, getting up from her spot on the bench. She waved at Lincoln and followed Bellamy down the stairs and into the back room. “I’ve been here for three hours, I did everything on your task list and I even finished cleaning out the small foam pit. It’s not like it would kill you to let me talk to my boyfriend for a few minutes.”  
  
“I found a gray hair this morning,” Bellamy said pulling off his tie and digging in his bag for his Bouncy Bean shirt. “I think it actually _is_ killing me, or at least aging me 15 years.”

“And you say I’m the dramatic one.” Octavia plucked a hair out of his head just for show. Bellamy rubbed at the spot.

“By the way, I booked a birthday party for Sunday morning with, wait for it, 22 kids.”

“God bless schools that require every kid get a party invitation,” Bellamy said pulling his shirt on. 

“I’m not even working on Sunday so I can be excited about that number. But you know who is working?” Octavia winked at him. 

“Jesus fucking Christ, I better get a cupcake out of this.” He shoved his bag into his locker and headed back to the floor.

This week was cleaning, so they were trying to get done what could be done on the equipment while the place was open. Saturday night he, Raven, Miller, and Miller’s new boyfriend, the guy Bellamy had hired to fix their web design problems cleaned the large foam pit. It was a taxing process that meant pulling every foam square out of the pit bigger than his apartment and spraying it down with the kind of shit bowling alleys used in those rental shoes and then fishing out all the lost items from the bottom of the trampoline pit: keys, iPods, loose change, pens, earrings, marbles, toy cars, sometimes pills or candy. Thankfully the only condoms they’d ever found had been sealed in their little foil wrappers. A sister franchise in the next town over swore they found a snake but he was pretty sure that was bullshit, like people saying McDonald’s ball pits had hypodermic needles in them.

Bellamy pulled off his shoes and grabbed a cloth to clean the rock climbing walls. And that’s where he was, minding his own business, headphones in his ears, when Miller got his attention. He pulled an ear bud out and stayed in place, hanging from the wall with a rag in one hand and his foot on one of the bigger holds.   
  
“This lady is refusing to leave even though her paid time is up, and she won’t get out of the big foam pit,” Miller explained. The guy never looked fazed but he appeared a little ruffled and if he was getting Bellamy that meant that the customer either asked for the manager or she was too much for Miller.

He climbed over to the walkway, tossed his rag over his shoulder and took a deep breath. Miller pointed to a frazzled blonde tossing foam cubes over her shoulders, while trying to keep her balance. This happened at least once a week, some idiot lost something in the pits and they always got angry.

“Ma’am,” Bellamy started to get her attention. “You can’t look for anything in there while we’re open. You can come back at close and we’ll let you look, but you’ll never find it while there are kids jumping in at the other end.”   
  
“You know what, fuck you,” the woman growled before hitting him solidly in the chest with a foam block. A couple of preschoolers were quickly snatched up by their mothers and Bellamy signaled to Miller to get them some half off coupons for their trouble. But one preschooler was left, watching the woman dig and curse. The woman looked old enough he supposed to have a preschooler, but with language like that he didn’t really think the kid belonged to her.

“Hey buddy, you want to go play some dodge ball over there?” he said kneeling down next to the kid. He shook his head. “Did your kid lose a car or something?” Bellamy tried the blonde again.

“It’s my little brother, well half brother,” she yelled back. “And no,” she turned to him, her blue eyes panicked and her hair wild. If Bellamy wasn’t so irritated by this little problem and ever presented with the opportunity he wouldn’t kick her out of bed.

“You only cleared half the kids with your colorful language, princess, so you’re really not going to find whatever you lost. If it was your phone, I hope you have insurance because those usually do not last in the pit long before some 12 year old does a canon ball.”

She slipped and fell face first into the blocks in front of her. Bellamy tried not to laugh. Laughing at people lost you customers. 

“Isn’t there a way to drain it or something?” she said looking like the fight had finally gone out of her.

“It’s not a pool or a bathtub,” he said with a chuckle. “We just cleaned it two days ago, it’s a monthly thing and it requires me and three other people working for six solid hours. But you’re welcome to come back tonight, we close at nine, it’s a hell of a lot easier when there aren’t second graders belly flopping on the other side. He offered her a hand but she gave him a sour face and refused, instead trying to get out on her own, arms flailing and finally just hoisting herself out the side on her stomach like a fat kid in a swimming pool. To be fair, it was hard to get out of those foam pits but he was going to laugh about the image later.

She stood up and brushed herself off, then grabbed the preschooler’s hand and huffed on her way passed him.

The afternoon got busy after that but nothing too crazy. The hot, frantic blonde was still the talk of the break room but Bellamy didn’t think much about her until he was blowing the whistle and announcing closing.   
  
“God, I thought you’d never close,” the small woman brushed passed him in a hurry, she was wearing those cropped leggings and a hot pink tank top meant for working out, her hair was in a high ponytail and she ditched her shoes at the edge of the pit. She came back much more suited for digging through the quicksand of the foam.   
  
“When did you even get here?” he asked slightly confused.

“I’ve been sitting on the couch over there for 35 minutes. That guy from earlier was too busy flirting to notice me,” she said jumping into the pit. “What is the best way to do this? Should I just start pushing all the blocks out onto the floor there?” She pointed to the seating area meant for tired parents.

“Yeah, sure,” he said. “I’ve got to close up so you’re on your own.”

“Or you could help me and get a shining Yelp review,” the woman countered, her eyebrow raised in challenge.   
  
“I’ve got a shit ton of positive Yelp reviews, and that guy over there flirting with Miller, uhhh, Morris?” he shrugged hoping the name was close, “He’s just got our Facebook page up to 3500 likes so I’m not really sweating it.”   
  
“Monty,” she corrected. Bellamy gave her a look and she mirrored his earlier shrug. “I overheard. I was sitting there a while. Maybe you’ll help because I’m cute?” she smiled and Bellamy shook his head.

“Not that cute. I just cleaned that pit remember? It’s the worst chore in this place.”

“Hundred bucks,” she offered as he walked away. Bellamy scrunched his eyes shut. He finally looked up at the ceiling and blew out a breath.

“I’ll help for an hour,” he faced her, “If we haven’t found your lost Tiffany’s earring or overpriced lip gloss in that time, you’re on your own. And you better have cash.”

She nodded, resolved to the task at hand. Bellamy hollered at Miller to close up and he hoped into the pit at the opposite end.

“You push the foam that way, I’ll push it out on this side. What the fuck am I looking for?” 

“A watch,” she said between tossing foam cubes.

“Better be a fucking Apple watch,” he mumbled as he started methodically moving the bigger blocks out.

At the 45 minute mark they’d found 17 M&Ms, three crayons, tiny pink sunglasses, and Best Buy rewards card. Bellamy was thinking this girl was gonna be here all night and he’d have to figure out a way to gracefully kick her out.

Just as he was ready to gently break the news that it was a lost cause, he pulled a foam block with a big chunk out of the side missing. Bellamy pulled back to throw it to the side when a men’s watch nearly hit him in the face. The links of the wristband snagged the foam and the watch hung onto the bottom of the block.

“Princess, please, please tell me this is the watch,” he said, holding it up. She was closer than he realized and dove at him for it. She grabbed it but lost her balance and ended up on top of him in the half full blocks around them.   
  
“Thank you,” she said out of breath from the leap he assumed. But she was really close to his face and she was a little too comfortable on top of him. She swallowed and he licked his lips. He didn’t mean to, it just happened, and then she leaned into him, practically chasing his tongue. Bellamy kissed her back, his hands coming around her back for a minute, until he snapped out of it. He pulled away and that seemed to bring her to her senses, too. “Sorry, it’s just really important to me. The watch.”   
  
“Figured, not too many people would spend an hour and a hundred bucks to find something that can be replaced at Target,” he said realizing she was still on top of him. He cleared his throat and her eyes got wide. She pushed against him and floundered a bit in the pit. She extricated herself quicker and more gracefully than this afternoon but that was probably because there were half the blocks in here now. The other half would need to put kicked back into the pit. Bellamy followed her, coming out, and started to use the side of his foot to guide the cubes back into their home.

“It was my dad’s, he died a few years ago,” she started from the other end of the area while she was tossing foam pieces back in from her side. Bellamy nodded his understanding. If his mom had left him anything and he’d lost it like that, he’d probably do the same. “My mom remarried and every piece of my dad feels like it’s been erased,” she didn’t look up at him. “This is all I have.” 

“It’s cool, I get it,” he offered, not really sure what to say.

They finished the work in silence, she ran out quickly, leaving a hundred dollar bill on the counter, but now Bellamy felt bad keeping it. Not so bad that he wasn’t gonna take it though.

 

Sunday morning rolled around and Bellamy had almost forgotten about the cute blonde who had a little bit of a grief breakdown in this foam pit. If the rest of the week’s work hadn’t washed her out of his hair, the 22 over excited four year olds would. That and the fresh faces of moms who had never been to the place, asking him never ending questions about safety and cleanliness.

“The foam pit was cleaned twice this week,” he told a helicopter parent with a kid on one of those fluffy looking stuffed animal child leashes. “You’re in luck. Just have the kid clean his pockets out before he gets in. I’d rather not clean it a third time. And make sure you read the waiver line by line.” He tried to sound cheerful but he was in no mood for it.

“Um, hi,” he turned to see the blonde from the other night, her little brother holding her hand. Bellamy couldn’t help but smile. Not exactly the response anyone would expect him to get from a woman that had him digging through that damned pit.

“Hi,” he replied with a dopey wave. “Invited to the birthday party?”

“Yep,” she said holding up a gift bag. “I’m Clarke, by the way, I don’t think I ever said that the other night.”

“You didn’t. I’m Bellamy.” He smiled wider. “So you’ve seen the wonders of the foam pit, but have you really tried the dodge ball trampoline area?”

Clarke blushed a little. “Is that a challenge? Because I think I can take you.”   
  
“I’ve worked here for a long time, running on these trampolines is second nature to me so I’d like to see you try, princess.”

The little guy by her side ran off and she hollered after him, “Be nice! I’ll be over here,” she turned back to Bellamy, “Crushing this guy at dodge ball.”

“How about we put that hundred dollar bill back in play?” He lifted his eyebrows as she took a moment to size him up.

“You’re on.”


End file.
